Bound By Demonic Confidentiality

20260423

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

“Katherine.”
“Fessy!” Kat beamed and waved the book she was holding. ‘Lookit! I got an A on my conjuration coursework! Mum and Dad were so proud!”
“Yes.”
The demon’s expression was unusually sombre, though admittedly him being in the form of a cat made it harder to tell. But the fact he wasn’t congratulating her signified something was seriously wrong.
“Meph…?” Kat said uneasily.
His tail-tip was lashing. His whiskers twitched. He was clearly thinking hard. Then he slowly, deliberately declared “I have an apology to make to you.”
“For what?”
“I cannot say.”
Oh no.
“Kirk got you to do something to my stuff again, didn’t he??”
“I cannot tell you anything about your brother’s whereabouts or recent activities.” Meph said soberly.
“That, that rotten…!” Kat caught herself just before throwing her triumphant coursework down in disgust. “And that means you can’t help me find it!”
“As I said, I have an apology to make to you.”
“You don’t need to apologise, Meph.” Kat sighed. “I know you can’t refuse-”
The demon fixed her with an exasperated stare, then very slowly said “A. Detailed. Apology.”
“…Ohh.” Kat tucked her binder under her arm and fumbled out her little notebook. “Go on, I’m listening.”
“Firstly, I must apologise for making it so clear that you haven’t dusted your shelves properly.”
Kat stuck her tongue out at him. Typical demon, jibing you while being helpful. She noted down that he’d gone to her bookshelf. In fact, if he’d left traces, he must have moved something physical from the bookshelf… so Kirk was punishing her for doing well at school again by trying to mess with her studies!
“Secondly, I know that you are very fond of that lilac bookmark. My sincerest apologies.”
Lilac, lilac, what had she put the lilac bookmark in last…? It was her favourite, and she secretly thought of it as her ‘lucky’ bookmark, so it would’ve been…
Her breath caught. Her mouth tightened. “Kirk had you steal the Spell Diary I’ve been working on for the Alchemy Fair!”
Meph’s eyes half-closed in an approving smile, even as he dispassionately intoned “I cannot say.”
“That jerk!!”
Kat whirled around - then paused as Meph nonchalantly mused “And now I must go apologise to your mother. For, while I was careful not to damage anything, I know it upsets her when magic is cast there.”
“Where nobody’s allowed to cast… Kirk had you steal my Spell Diary and hide it under mom’s prize-winning fire roses?? HEY MEANIE YOU’RE GONNA BE MORE GROUNDED THAN A MUD GOLEM!!!”
She rushed back towards the sitting room, Meph following behind with a devilish saunter.
Perhaps it would teach the brat not to abuse the Pact left to him by his doting grandmother. And perhaps it wouldn’t. Either way, watching him get in trouble would be a delight, particularly after being forced to waste magic on such a petty, demeaning, and worst of all tedious task.

Prompt was “Write a scene where a character is confessing, but never names the wrongdoing.”